Farage is wrong, sexist comments are not laddish banter

• How far will England get in the World Cup before losing on penalties?
• Which beer mile is the best in London?
• Will Starmer survive?
• Is going for a group run/kayaking session at 9 tomorrow morning a realistic proposition?

It was at times stereotypically blokey stuff and did degenerate into some drunken debate and embarrassing dancing.

But never at any point did I hear anything remotely close to jokes about female rugby league players, or any lewd, sexual comments about Carol Vorderman (or anyone else, for that matter).

For most men, even in the most compromised of conditions, there is a clear line of what is not ok to say in confidence, or even think.

Yet, Reform councillor and Makerfield by-election candidate Robert Kenyon took it a stage further by not only making the remarks in private confidence, but writing them online - endorsing a graphic sexual act at Vorderman’s expense made by another Twitter user.

Alongside a thumbs up and a laughing emoji, the plumber wrote: “He’s only saying what we’re all thinking.”

Kenyon’s comments, made five to ten years ago, had been deleted but have now resurfaced as he seeks office. Vorderman is understandably furious.

But what has angered me the most, alongside the non-apology of Kenyon, is to hear his party leader Nigel Farage dismiss blatant misogyny as “laddish”.

“They are the kind of comments you’ll hear in every pub in the country every evening,” he said.

Well, not in any pub I have ever been to.

Farage’s view that lewd comments made by blokes can be passed off as “laddish” is offensive to men, downgrading us to be destined to be nothing more than insensitive, impulsive bores.

There is nothing just intrinsically male, or “boys will be boys”, about using, or endorsing graphic sexual language at someone else’s expense online.

It’s both wrong, and also sets a worrying precedent for any fans of Farage’s other policies to think that it’s now fine to make sexist remarks once more in a pub setting, or on Twitter.

Kenyon is also inexcusable in saying that he did not expect to run for office when he made the comments and that he will not make them again if elected. He might as well have added that he is just upset that he got caught.

Farage has said this week that he is eyeing up No 10 and has already sought the advice of his buddy Donald Trump for life in the top job.

It was ten years ago that Trump, during his 2016 campaign, blew off a historic recording, where he infamously said “Grab 'em by the p****, you can do anything,” by saying it was “locker room banter”.

Unlike Farage, Trump did apologise - a collector’s item.

But while this has Britishised the “locker room” with the “pub” setting, it’s essentially the same message: That men will always make horrible, sexist comments, and you’d better get over it.

“Do you know what I’d say to that? I’d say, so what?” Farage said about the Kenyon furore.

But I think the Reform voters he is targeting do care, both male and female.

Whether I think Farage is wrong about a number of things is irrelevant here, but I will say he is wrong if this is his view of men.

We are better than this apparently floor-high bar he has set us, and both women and other men deserve this from us.

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William Mata is a writer for LBC.

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